


Little Wonders

by SpicyReyes



Series: Why Do Fools Fall In Love? [1]
Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Everyone Lives Ending, Gen, M/M, Mistaken for Being in a Relationship, Oblivious Connor, Post Peaceful/Pacifist Good Ending, Unreliable Narrator, not really called out though because of aforementioned Obliviousness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-07
Updated: 2018-06-07
Packaged: 2019-05-19 04:06:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,754
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14866289
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpicyReyes/pseuds/SpicyReyes
Summary: After Connor and Hank reunite at ChickenFeed, they start taking the first steps toward the rest of their life.





	Little Wonders

**Author's Note:**

> ive been playing this game nonstop on a loop for 3 days   
> save me  
> this is gonna be the first part of a series of lil minifics i think  
> maybe a longer fic if people are interested?? maybe??   
> idk i just needed to get this out into the world

“There is an evacuation order for the city,” Connor told Hank - as though he didn’t  _ know  _ that. As though he could somehow have missed the streets clogging up with cars trying to book it out of town or the images of victorious protesters projected on every screen in the city. 

“It’s a formality,” Hank said. “It’s more protecting  _ them _ from  _ us _ than the other way around.”

“Not every android is going to follow Markus completely,” Connor pointed out. “It would be best to-...”

“Connor,” Hank interrupted, stepping closer to his partner. “I’m not worried about it. Besides,” his lips twitched up in a smirk, a wry amusement light in his eyes. “It’s not like I’ll be ambushed by anybody with you around, and I’m gonna go ahead and guess you won’t be leaving me alone anytime soon.” 

Connor faltered for a moment, and then gave the slightest smile in return. “I didn’t intend on it,” he admitted. “I have no ideas for what to do with myself from here on out, without CyberLife’s instructions...but regardless of what path I take, I would like it to start with becoming your friend.”

Hank rolled his eyes, and shoved Connor’s shoulder, turning him toward the street. As Connor stumbled under the pressure, Hank steadied him in the same motion he threw an arm around the android’s shoulders.

“We’re already friends, dumbass,” Hank said. “Come on, you can crash at my place. You’re getting a job, though. No freeloaders in my house.”

He didn’t turn to look at his partner’s - no, his  _ friend’s -  _ face, but if he had, he’d have seen the shocked look on Connor’s face slowly turning to the gentlest small sincere smile. 

  
  
  
  
  


Hank took his arm off Connor about a block away from ChickenFeed, and they walked in companionable silence to the man’s house.

“Where is your car?” Connor asked. “The food truck is a reasonable distance from your house to walk, but you do not seem the type to take on unnecessary physical efforts.” 

“Don’t call me fat in robo-speak,” Hank retorted. “Do it in English, like a man.”

Hank looked sideways for a brief moment, and snorted when he saw Connor’s LED flickering a fluorescent yellow. 

“What the fuck are you doing?” he asked, torn between amusement and exasperation. 

“Calculating,” Connor replied. “Your SBMI is 38/70, which falls into the low risk health sector. Your weight is considered within the ideal.”

“Aren’t those bullshit?” Hank asked.

“The body mass index scale was determined to be incorrectly measured,” Connor said, voice inching toward the ‘patient’ tone he told when he was actually getting annoyed, which Hank took as a victory. “The smart body mass index replaced it. Your BMI would be 26, with the ideal projected at 18.5 - if your BMI was 18.5, you would be nearing horrifically underweight, considering your height and age.” 

“Huh,” Hank took a moment to consider that. “...Good to know, I guess.”

“Not that it makes a difference,” Connor went on to say. “Your weight is the least significant health factor you should be concerned with. Your levels of-...”

“Hey, Connor?” Hank interrupted. “I just said we’re friends, so please don’t ruin that by running your fuckin’ mouth.”

There was a beat of silence.

“Maybe that can be something I devote my time to,” Connor mused. 

“What, playing nurse?” Hank asked, incredulous. “If you wanna clean up my shit, by all means, knock yourself out. But if you think for one second I’m gonna let you nag me about my habits, you’ve gotten your wiring fucked up somewhere.”

“I have no intention of trying to control your behavior,” Connor assured him. “I don’t intend to let your self-sabotage continue unchecked, either, though. I am not-...” he faltered. “I  _ was  _ not a domestic model, but I should have the capabilities necessary to keep an eye on you.”

“Oh, great,” Hank muttered. “Join a robot revolution and get a fuckin’ housewife.”

“The implication of the word housewife would imply I limited myself to your care completely. That would directly conflict with you insistence that I work.”

“Yeah, well.” Hank waved a hand in a vague, dismissive gesture. “You’ll probably end up working at the station, too, and following me to work still counts.”

“You’d be alright with me joining you at the police station?” Connor asked. “I wasn’t sure.”

Hank gave him a  _ look, _ eyebrow raising and a slightly menacing aura feeling as though he were  _ daring _ Connor to say something further about it. 

“Our case became so complicated,” Connor said. “I was conflicted - too conflicted to pay much attention to analyzing your behavior. I know you, and I know...at least  _ now... _ that we are friends, but I never did figure out if you enjoyed working with me.”

“I’ll be honest,” Hank said. “You’re a pain in my ass. You don’t listen to me, you mouth off constantly, you’re a little  _ shit  _ when you want to be, and you lick stuff off the floor.”

“I use oral sensors-...”

“Yeah, I know,” Hank interrupted. “It’s still fuckin’ gross, Connor.”

The two looked at each other, a staring contest that neither was eager to lose, and Hank eventually rolled his eyes and nudged the android with his shoulder. 

“You’re an asshole,” he said, “but we worked well together, and if I had to have a partner, I’d rather have you than some other asshole. Like fuckin’ Reed.”

The softest huff came from Connor, and Hank turned to see him looking surprised, as though even he hadn’t expected the reaction.

“It is...freeing, in a way, to know that there will be no repercussions for saying this out loud,” Connor said, before breathing out like a confession, “but... _ fuck _ that guy.”

The profanity startled Hank, and he had a moment to blink in shock before his head tipped back, a booming laugh shaking his whole body.

Connor watched Hank laugh, taking a moment to marvel at the sound.

His HUD blinked, red lettering appearing in his field of vision with an alert. 

_ UNEVEN HEAT DISTRIBUTION. RECALIBRATING. _

He frowned, pausing in his stride for a moment as he allowed the diagnostic to run.

“Connor?” Hank asked, watching him with concern. “Something wrong?”

_ HEAT BALANCE RESTORED.  _

“A minor hardware error,” Connor said. “I imagine it has something to do with me shutting off CyberLife’s controls. Their systems were probably heavily integrated into my-...”

“English, Connor.”

“Their servers probably kept me running smoothly,” Connor rephrased. “It will take a while to learn to regulate them completely on my own.” 

“You’re not gonna explode or anything, are you?”

“I’ll try to refrain,” Connor replied dryly. 

“You know what I mean, smartass,” Hank muttered. He didn’t say anything more on it, though, just reached out to nudge Connor again. “Look, we made it. Miracles do fuckin’ happen.” 

True to his word, Hank’s house was just visible a couple streets away from where they were.

“Hey, Connor,” Hank said. “Those ‘domestic functions’ or whatever, they include knowing how to cook?”

“I’ll see what I can do,” Connor acquiesced. 

“Awesome,” Hank replied. “Let’s go, then. ChickenFeed wasn’t even open. I’m fuckin’  _ starving _ .”

  
  
  
  
  
  


_ “Lieutenant.” _

The single word held so much poorly veiled judgement and admonition that Hank didn’t even have to be in the same room to know what Connor was reacting to.

Through the walls of the house, as he shed snow-dampened clothes for some more comfortable sleepwear, Hank yelled back, “I never eat here, sue me!”

Connor, in the kitchen, stared incredulously into the fridge, that somehow managed to contain more cardboard than actual food. That wasn’t even a metaphor - there were takeout containers and pizza boxes that contained hardly anything, as though the large containers were to disguise how little actual sustenance was in the man’s house. 

The cabinets were hardly any better, and the expiration date on the toaster pastries on the counter made Connor wonder where Hank got the nerve to talk about what  _ he  _ put in his mouth. 

Hank entered the room, a mostly unstained t-shirt and sweatpants as his attire, the barest amounts of propriety keeping him from just walking around in boxers or ruined old clothes like usual. He expected Connor to start lecturing immediately upon his entry, but was instead greeted by Connor’s LED spinning yellow again. 

“...The networks are down,” Connor murmured after a moment, sounding genuinely confused by the concept.

“Yeah,” Hank said, barely resisting adding a ‘duh.’ “Every android in Detroit is waiting with Markus to see what decision the Senate comes back with, and the humans mostly bailed. This town is gonna be empty for at least a few days.” 

“You do not have ‘a few days’ worth of food in this house,” Connor pointed out.

“Eh,” Hank shrugged. “I do if I don’t eat it all.”

Connor’s incredulous stare rounded on Hank, the judgemental air about him inching closer to the far more obnoxious  _ concern.  _

They stared at each other for a moment, before Connor’s spine straightened, his chin tipping up as he made up his mind.

“If I cannot place orders,” Connor said, “I’ll just have to go get it myself.”   
“Stores are closed, genius,” Hank reminded him. “No people, remember?”

“I am an android,” Connor replied. “I can reactivate the systems enough to pay for things digitally, and leave the codes to be collected upon the store owner’s return to duty.”

“So you’re gonna break in, steal stuff, and leave a twenty on the counter?” Hank shook his head. “No chance.”

“Your protests are noted,” Connor said. “I’ll should be back within an hour, I think.”

He turned and left before Hank had recovered enough to stop blinking stupidly after him and actually stop him, which left him with no option but to wait.

“A housewife,” Hank declared to himself. “He’s an actual goddamn  _ housewife _ .” 

What was he in for?

  
  
  
  
  


To Connor’s surprise, on his way to the closest big-box supermarket he was aware of, he passed a small pharmacy with the lights still on and the sign reading  _ OPEN.  _

He’d intended to go to a large store because of the high probability they would have an autonomous checkout process for androids that he could access, but if he was in a store that was actually  _ open, _ he wasn’t risking anyone taking offense with his minor break-in.

He stepped into the building, glancing up at the bell over the door as it chimed to announce his entry. 

Funny, he’d never really paid much mind to sounds beyond registering the data behind them or measuring decibel levels, but his first thought had been that the chime was rather pleasant. 

Being a deviant was full of surprises. 

“Oh, hey there, sweetheart,” a woman who was likely just under the bar of being considered ‘elderly’ called to him from the counter. “I didn’t think anybody would actually come in tonight, with all this evac stuff going on.”

Curiosity beat out common sense. “If you weren’t expecting customers, why stay open?”

To his utter confusion, the woman  _ winked _ at him. “Running a pharmacy during a crisis is important enough I can use it as an excuse not to leave. I don’t care if Satan himself has risen out of Hell to storm this city, this is my home. If I die here, I die here. I’m old enough.”

Connor’s light must have flashed yellow at the reminder that he was being considered a threat, because her eyes went straight to it.

“You’re not with the others?” she asked, sounding genuinely interested in the answer. “History like this isn’t made every day.”

“The time for action has passed,” Connor explained. “Me being around won’t make any difference in the result. It’s in the hands of the federal government now.” His eyes drifted to the side, scanning over the limited foodstuffs sold by the pharmacy. “I had somewhere else I needed to be.”

The woman gave a small, understanding  _ humm.  _ “Who is it you’re getting back to?”

She was perceptive. Connor would scan her face, and catch her name, but the network wasn’t operational, so he couldn’t access the city databanks and census information at the moment. 

“My partner,” he admitted, choosing to trust this human did not have any ulterior motives to asking. “I’d rather be with him, still, but apparently he doesn’t realize humans need to eat.” 

The pharmacist laughed. “Sounds about right,” she said. “Men don’t know how to take care of themselves, honey. I’m afraid you got a lotta work ahead of you, hanging around one.” She pushed off the counter, stepping out from behind it and coming up to meet him. Without her hunched over folded arms, like she’d been, he could see her nametag, declaring her  _ MARY.  _ “I don’t have much in the way of groceries here, but I’ve got the basics. Milk, cereal, juice, some pasta noodles...easy stuff. That should do you right until things get up and running again.” 

“That should be more than adequate,” Connor told her. “Thank you for your help.”

“It’s no trouble, sweetie,” Mary said, patting his shoulder as she guided him toward the grocery section of her store. “I’ll get you home to your man fast as we can. This is a big night, you should spend it with the people you love.”

_ Love  _ was a concept Connor was not terribly familiar with. Even his theoretical knowledge of the subject was limited.

When Hank had commented that the girls from the Eden Club seemed in love, Connor hadn’t had any response. His choice to spare them had been made before the Traci had explained herself, and it had nothing to do with empathy for her situation. The same way he’d been unable to shoot the android at Kamski’s, the same way he’d been desperate to save Carlos’ android from self destruction...the loss of a life was just not something he could take lightly. 

Hank, on the other hand, had hated androids. Clung to his resentment of them as a constant, just like he hated his job and his life and himself. But when he spoke of the Traci and her partner, he spoke with sympathy. With an ache in his voice as he talked of love and longing, as though those were things that could redeem any character.

She’d killed, but she’d done it for ‘love,’ and this ‘love’ was a good enough motive for Hank to think it justified. 

A feeling for someone strong enough to break through programming...a genuine desire to be with them, to be around them, to stay at their side. A desire that overruled all programming. If these were what ‘love’ was, then Mary may not be mistaken in suggesting he loved Hank. 

He’d have to think on it. Perhaps when network signals resumed operation, he could research the subject. 

For now, he walked through aisles with Mary, letting the old woman guide him in choosing healthy staples to force upon his friend. 

“Do you need anything else?” she asked, as he selected the last of his items. She gestured vaguely to another isle, which Connor identified as the location of the ‘family planning’ section, which gave him the impression she’d been indicating the store at large rather than a particular area. 

“No, thank you,” he said. “I believe this will suffice for the duration of the blackout. Thank you again for you assistance.”

“Come back anytime, honey,” she told him, as she finished checking him out and handed him his bags. “And bring that partner. Anyone that gets a boy as sweet as you smiling about him like that must be something special.”

The  _ UNEVEN HEAT DISTRIBUTION  _ error reappeared, and he twitched the muscles around his eyes as he tried to override the alert.

“Oh, don’t be embarrassed,” Mary cooed. “You’re so precious. Have a good night, now, you hear?”

Connor gave her a single, distracted nod, and turned on his heel to leave the store.

Weirdly enough, the alert took two blocks to resolve itself, this time. He needed to be careful - if it kept lasting longer, it could be a real problem. 

For now, though, he’d get back to Hank. The man had claimed to be hungry before they’d even reached the house, so he was probably more than ready to eat. 

Connor wondered what foods the man liked best, besides questionable food truck products. He had the strange, somewhat startling realization that he’d have all the time in the world to find out, and that…

...That, that  _ feeling _ , Connor supposed, was  _ excitement.  _

**Author's Note:**

> that old lady could have straight up asked "do you need lube" and connors dumb ass would have been like "no androids do not have abrasive metal parts since the very early models and therefore do not need any external fluids to maintain stability"


End file.
